I have mixed feelings about Dire Straits, but I love this version of Portobello Belle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sQO-CDV_LA
― Lily Dale, Sunday, 24 November 2019 17:26 (four years ago) link
I still like Making Movies and Love Over Gold a lot, as well as the live album Alchemy. But as far as ongoing presence, it's pretty much reduced to "Sultans of Swing" and "Walk of Life" on oldies radio as far as I can tell.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 24 November 2019 17:39 (four years ago) link
after a night on the booze, my goto 'end of session' album is now 'love over gold'.i used to actively hate this band due to their omnipresence when i was a teenager.clearly i have got old.that said, it is a bloody cracking late night album.
― mark e, Sunday, 24 November 2019 17:41 (four years ago) link
Trying to remember how the song ‘Love Over Gold’ goes, but every time I sing it in my head it turns into ‘Private Dancer’
― Wee Bloabby (NickB), Sunday, 24 November 2019 17:47 (four years ago) link
I think they're an easy band to overplay. I listened to them a lot as a kid and never listen to them now as a result, although there are a lot of things I like about them.
I do love Mark Knopfler's guitar playing. I don't play any instruments or know anything about music at all, so I can't really comment on these things in any kind of meaningful way, but Knopfler's guitar always sounds to me like it's speaking a language that I'm just on the verge of understanding. And I don't think the lyrics are great, but I don't think they're terrible either. But somehow the actual songs usually seem to me like less than the sum of their parts. I'm not totally sure why. Maybe they just feel too comfortable.
― Lily Dale, Sunday, 24 November 2019 18:10 (four years ago) link
The language his guitar speaks is Strat.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 24 November 2019 18:15 (four years ago) link
Well, I did know that, if only because Douglas Adams felt the need to include that information in an awkward sex scene in one of the Hitchhiker's books.
― Lily Dale, Sunday, 24 November 2019 18:45 (four years ago) link
One of the more interesting attributes of the band is the length of the songs. They are almost like a jam band, moody platforms for his playing.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 24 November 2019 18:51 (four years ago) link
The 1st Dire Straits album is superb. Knopfler writes some great lyrics too - "in the gallery", " telegraph road"
― The World According To.... (Michael B), Sunday, 24 November 2019 19:28 (four years ago) link
I recently had to work up a mandolin arrangement of "Romeo and Juliet," and realized that the version in my head was not the Making Movies version, nor the (pretty ubiquitous) Indigo Girls cover, but rather a live version that for some reason I can't find anymore.
― they see me lollin' (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 24 November 2019 19:42 (four years ago) link
They are almost like a jam band
That's the aspect I actually like about Alchemy, 10-minute version of Sultans of Swing, 14-minute Tunnel of Love, 13-minute Telegraph Road.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 24 November 2019 19:48 (four years ago) link
I'd rather listen to Chris Rea play and sing.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 24 November 2019 19:53 (four years ago) link
For the longest time I thought Rea's "Working On It" <was> Dire Straits.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 24 November 2019 20:28 (four years ago) link
he no doubt got his Poppy Bush Interzone-era stateside push by emphasizing the comparison.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 24 November 2019 20:29 (four years ago) link
is there anybody who doesn't recognise the guitar on this? http://play.publicradio.org/mprstory/d/podcast/minnesota/the_current/song_of_the_day/2019/09/24/20190924_pieta_brown_the_hard_way_128.mp3
― walking towards the sun since 2007 (alex in mainhattan), Sunday, 24 November 2019 21:46 (four years ago) link
I’m very suspicious of Chris Rae for some reason. I should check him out.1st DS album is really solid, great production too. I like their sound as a “unit”.Communique is really good too. Maybe it does depend on how much you like Knopfler’s playing? Again, really great group interplayI haven’t actually listened to Love Over Gold apart from “industrial disease”, I need to correct thatMaking Movies - first two tracks are dopeBrothers In Arms - fascinating from the perspective of taking a band with a pretty distinct sound and feeding them into the corporate pop machine so as to make them almost unrecognizable
― brimstead, Sunday, 24 November 2019 22:17 (four years ago) link
I adore the first 5 tracks on Making Movies.
― kraudive, Sunday, 24 November 2019 22:40 (four years ago) link
The sax on Your Latest Trick is my Proust Madeleine
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 24 November 2019 23:49 (four years ago) link
I was about 10 when Brothers in Arms came out and it was still huge during my first year of (Australian) high school. Everyone I knew was into it, and the local family who had the first CD player in our neighborhood used to attract kids specifically for the purpose of listening to it at insane volumes in Perfect Sound. They played like 15 nights at the biggest venue in town. It was in the Proper Pop Phenomenon space for us, one of those things that is hard to convey after the event.
Now I can't stand Money For Nothing and Walk of Life but still enjoy the rest very much. Partly nostalgia and partly appreciating the insane production values. It feels like a good vehicle for appreciating the bands latter strengths - creating a sense of atmosphere and crafting a sympathetic platform for Knopfler's guitar playing, which I still find emotionally affecting despite having very little time for guitar solos elsewhere in my life. It feels like it has reasonable continuity with what they were doing on Love Over Gold? A bit more bloodless, sure, but recognisably the same band who did Private Investigations & Industrial Disease. And the extended outtro to Why Worry is a huge peak for me, immaculately played and recorded corporate rock shooting for a weird kind of new age serenity. Love it.
― umsworth (emsworth), Monday, 25 November 2019 00:27 (four years ago) link
"Walk Of Life" is funny and dumb
― billstevejim, Monday, 25 November 2019 00:51 (four years ago) link
Sorry, I will never not post this:
http://www.wolproject.com
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 25 November 2019 01:48 (four years ago) link
Giving On Every Street a listen this morning for the first time ever, it's a very good album.
― akm, Monday, 16 November 2020 17:29 (three years ago) link
Yet another band that has gone from massive to ... underrated? The Knopfler solo albums I've heard have been really good, too.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 16 November 2020 19:47 (three years ago) link
if i was a completist these are 2 groups i would consider as they are what i would consider intelligent rock music!
― xzanfar, Monday, 16 November 2020 19:49 (three years ago) link
I don't know about underrated as the catalog still sells very well by today's standards. I like them, but there's a lot of stuff that I don't like on all of their albums. Making Movies is probably the most extreme example of this - side one's awesome, but side two quickly goes to hell. I usually just listen to a compilation that boils everything down to their best stuff.
― birdistheword, Monday, 16 November 2020 20:15 (three years ago) link
I recently realized that the "Telegraph Road" of that lengthy song is the same one I grew up on, in the Detroit area. Never made that connection because people in that region never verbally identify streets with "road", "street", "avenue", etc. 8 Mile instead of 8 Mile Road, like. We just knew/know it as "Telegraph."
― henry s, Monday, 16 November 2020 20:31 (three years ago) link
Never heard On Every Street. They were my favourite band when I was 9 or 10 then by the time of that last album I'd moved on. There is great stuff on every record, yes and despite Making Movies being their best, it does indeed descend into hell.
― kraudive, Monday, 16 November 2020 20:52 (three years ago) link
I don't know, side two has "Expresso Love" and "Solid Rock," which are both driven by great riffs and licks. "Hand in Hand" is an OK ballad that sounds a bit like Graham Parker. "Les Boys" is pretty stupid, but it's the last song. But man, side one (three songs!) of that album ...
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 16 November 2020 21:03 (three years ago) link
I like Hand In Hand very much.
― kraudive, Monday, 16 November 2020 21:09 (three years ago) link
it’s not as good as side A but it’s not bad or anything (Les Boys aside)
― brimstead, Monday, 16 November 2020 21:09 (three years ago) link
"Hand In Hand" is used very well in Everybody Wants Some!!!.
― "what are you DOING to fleetwood mac??" (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 16 November 2020 21:19 (three years ago) link
I heard the title track of On Every Street on a compilation. It's touching and much more low-key than most of their latter-day stuff, with an actually cathartic guitar coda.
Communique must win a prize for most blatant attempt to carbon copy a successful debut album. Another nominee: King Crimson's In the Wake of Poseidon.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 16 November 2020 23:25 (three years ago) link
side one of making movies is indeed peak straits
― la table sur la table (voodoo chili), Monday, 16 November 2020 23:35 (three years ago) link
There's a vinyl copy of Love Over Gold somewhere here. Need to pull it out.
― kraudive, Tuesday, 17 November 2020 01:18 (three years ago) link
Love Over Gold is primo Floyd not Floyd.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 17 November 2020 01:37 (three years ago) link
I occasionally feel actual human emotions when listening to Knopfler guitar solos
some of the best are on his solo LPs IMO - there's one on a song called I think 'prairie wedding' that actually took my breath away the first time I heard it (YMMV naturally)
I don't know exactly what his trick is - but it really does a number on me
― the least famous person you were surprised to discover (emsworth), Tuesday, 17 November 2020 01:39 (three years ago) link
ha totally. it’s an amazing sounding album xp
― brimstead, Tuesday, 17 November 2020 01:40 (three years ago) link
back when I was a kid (in the 80s) I viewed Dire Straits as the exact midway point between Floyd and Springsteen
the solo (solos?) on “brothers in arms” is/are really moving
― brimstead, Tuesday, 17 November 2020 01:41 (three years ago) link
no pick!
Is it me, or is like Knopfler like really popular in Eastern Europe? That is a vibe I get from the videos and comments on Youtube vids about Knopfler and Dire Straits.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 17 November 2020 01:41 (three years ago) link
I have no idea why but that makes total sense
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 17 November 2020 01:54 (three years ago) link
eastern europe, africa, dire straits is truly global
― la table sur la table (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 17 November 2020 02:11 (three years ago) link
the tone is amazing for sure! but there's also something about his melodic choices, and (crucially IMO) the way the songs are structured to create a sympathetic bed for the solos
― the least famous person you were surprised to discover (emsworth), Tuesday, 17 November 2020 02:17 (three years ago) link
I love how lyrical his playing is without getting bogged down in big, bent notes. He sort of skirts along the edges of country and jazz and blues without quite landing on any of them. Possibly in this thread but certainly elsewhere people have compared his playing to Richard Thompson, which never really occurred to me, though when I think about it I can see the occasional resemblances. Imo Thompson is more clearly the untouchable virtuoso, yet while I love every minute of his guitar playing it's just so ... playful and alive ... and eerily perfect, no matter the context. Thompson may write better melancholy, mournful songs, but Knopfler's playing actually captures that vibe better. He often sounds like he's searching for something.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 17 November 2020 03:09 (three years ago) link
Vocals aside, "Hand in Hand" used to remind me of Springsteen in spots, and sure enough Roy Bittan's on piano (with Iovine producing, fresh off of Darkness on the Edge of Town). It can be pleasant enough, otherwise it would never work the way it did in Everybody Wants Some!! "Solid Rock" always sounded like rote stuff to me, like throwaway lyrics applied to a band warm-up. "Expresso Love" never really goes anywhere, and it's probably the best cut on side B. Every time I put on that side, it felt like I was listening to B-sides or outtakes.
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 17 November 2020 03:24 (three years ago) link
I recently realized that the "Telegraph Road" of that lengthy song is the same one I grew up on, in the Detroit area. Never made that connection because people in that region never verbally identify streets with "road", "street", "avenue", etc. 8 Mile instead of 8 Mile Road, like. We just knew/know it as "Telegraph."Interesting... can confirm this (I also grew up around there).
― it's AG in your faaaace.... (morrisp), Tuesday, 17 November 2020 04:57 (three years ago) link
― brimstead, Tuesday, November 17, 2020 1:40 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
Their strength and their weakness IMO....
― my opinionation (Hamildan), Tuesday, 17 November 2020 10:14 (three years ago) link
xp from one of many links:
The Telegraph Road is a major north-south 70 mile thoroughfare in Michigan. Mark Knopfler was inspired to write this song while riding in the front of the tour bus, which made the journey down Telegraph Road. At the time, Knopfler was reading the novel The Growth Of the Soil by the Nobel Prize winning Norwegian author Knut Hamsun and he was inspired to put the 2 together and write a song about the beginning of the development along Telegraph Road and the changes over the ensuing decades. This was a metaphor for the development of America and the ruining of one man's dreams in the wake of its decline, in particular focusing on unemployment.
Guessing the bus was on its way to Pine Knob, and they took Telegraph to Square Lake to 75.
― henry s, Tuesday, 17 November 2020 13:09 (three years ago) link
Bittan is all over "Making Movies." His playing on "Tunnel of Love" is as important to the song as the guitar.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 17 November 2020 13:28 (three years ago) link